These horses named Chinook and Cheyenne have been taken from the Lind-Larsen property in Redding, Conn. by State Animal Control Agents. Photo contributed by the State Department of Animal Control.
August 2014

These horses named Chinook and Cheyenne have been taken from the Lind-Larsen property in Redding, Conn. by State Animal Control Agents. Photo contributed by the State Department of Animal Control.
August 2014

Photo: Contributed Photo

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These horses, Chinook and Cheyenne, are taken from the Lind-Larsen property in Redding, Conn. by State Animal Control Agents.
Photo contributed by the State Department of Animal Control.
August 2014

These horses, Chinook and Cheyenne, are taken from the Lind-Larsen property in Redding, Conn. by State Animal Control Agents.
Photo contributed by the State Department of Animal Control.
August 2014

Photo: Contributed Photo

Image 3 of 3

Redding woman charged with animal cruelty

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REDDING -- Animal control agents following a tip about two horses being neglected found stalls with manure 8 inches deep, water troughs teeming with algae and the horses badly emaciated and covered in fly bites.

The horses' owner, Lisa Lind-Larsen, 75, of Packer Brook, was charged with two counts of animal cruelty after turning herself in to Redding police.

Lind-Larsen had obtained the two mustangs, Chinook and Cheyenne, from the federal Bureau of Land Management in 2005. The BLM conducts periodic roundups of wild horses on Western lands and makes them available for adoption.

The News-Times interviewed Lind-Larsen just after she adopted the horses. She said at the time she spent hours caring for them.

"I'm very pleased with them," she said. "I wouldn't do without them for anything."

In 2011, however, animal control agents visiting the property to seize her dog, which had been exposed to rabies, noticed the horses looked underweight. They opened an investigation, but closed it the next year after the animals' condition improved.

The latest investigation began in July when a tipster gave authorities pictures showing that Chinook and Cheyenne had again become emaciated, according to an affidavit. The photographer, who didn't want to be identified, told agents that the horses were in a "severely neglected state."

Redding police and animal control agents went to Lind-Larsen's property July 10 with a search warrant.

The horses were found in the paddock, the bones in their hips, ribs and spine plainly showing. Their stalls were eight to nine inches deep in manure, water was scanty and unclean, and food supplies were scarce, the affidavit said.Lind-Larsen told agents it had been two years since a veterinarian saw the animals, and that they had never had dental care.

Both horses were seized and taken to a Department of Agriculture facility in Niantic, where an equine vet declared them extremely emaciated and dehydrated, suffering from various infections and in need of dental care.

"This is something we deal with," Connors said. "Your brain deals with what you saw after."

Lind-Larsen, who faces two years in prison if convicted on the cruelty charges, said Wednesday she still wants to keep the animals.

"Hopefully, the horses will come back when they are better," she said.

Earlier this year, Lind-Larsen was charged with importing a dog with rabies over state lines and leaving a dog in her car unattended. Those charges are working their way through court.